Elena Clark

Week 4 Feb. 17-21

1. How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have? This week, I observed three kindergarten classrooms. It was interesting observing how each teacher taught. One thing that I liked was that at the first school, the teachers did sight word songs with students that helped the students remember to spell each word. I also liked a game that the teacher at the second school used during small group math. She had lima beans that were blue on one side and green on the other. She had the students shake 5 of them and toss them on the table. They drew the turn out and then wrote a math sentence about it. Due to the weather and some other extraneous factors, we were unable to complete science for most of the week. We did do a rock research investigation on Friday. The students really enjoyed it. They learned about different characteristics of rocks. I started doing guided reading groups this week. It was harder than I thought. At first, I struggled with how to fill the time. After discussing guided reading further with Mrs. Lee, we decided to have her lead them one day. Observing her helped me a lot. I look forward to implement the strategies she uses for keeping the students focused. I participated in parent-teacher conferences this week as well. I learned a lot about how to effectively direct the time, pointing out the students behavior strengths and assessment performance strengths. Mrs. Lee tactfully addressed students needs and provided helpful tips to the parents for working with students at home. 2. What were the most satisfying experiences? Greatest challenges? I started teaching all day this week. I enjoyed leading the class. I spoke with the principal about how to improve and she provided a lot of helpful insight for me. As I reflected on her advice, I tried to implement it and saw positive results in student responses. That was very satisfying for me. One of the greatest challenges was dealing with one student who regularly refuses to talk to Mrs. Lee and me. He is very quiet and naughty and will crawl around the room after repeated warnings and marks on his point sheet for behavior. In response, I decided to have him sit out during science at the end of the day. He had to put his head down for part of the time and watch the class play with the rocks. I did not feel that this was the most effective discipline, but given the situation, I did not know what else to do. This was challenging! I think in the future I will warn him that only students who behave get to pick out of the prize box. 3. What are the plans for the upcoming week? This week, I will teach bell-to-bell. It is a review week in Journeys, so we will be reviewing the letters and sight words that we have learned the last few weeks. For math, we will continue doing the Daily Math Review and learn two new games. For science, students will investigate rocks further (we conducted an experiment on Fridaythe results should be ready this week!) and begin soil explorations.